


Be the Sword to My Shield

by MyChemicalLover



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Sword & Shield | Pokemon Sword & Shield Versions
Genre: Courtship, Denial, M/M, More characters added later, kind of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-11
Updated: 2020-11-02
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:34:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 9,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24132148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MyChemicalLover/pseuds/MyChemicalLover
Summary: Hop has never considered anything like courting, in fact, he has never even seen the word. What is this strange concept called courting? No matter what anyone else says, he is not courting Victor. He is just trying to show his appreciation for his rival through challenges and gifts. It isn’t his fault that no one seems to believe him.
Relationships: Hop/Masaru | Victor
Comments: 17
Kudos: 178





	1. Turffield

**Turffield (Hay! You’re pretty cute!):**

Hop was sweating.

Of course, he had just pushed what must have been the heaviest bale of hay in all of Galar. Wooloo had tried to help him, but Milo had said that if he got help, then it would show that he wasn't serious about his feelings.

And Hop was serious about his feelings.

By that he meant his feelings of affectionate respect for his favorite rival. Not any other feelings.

"Wooo" Wooloo bleet next to him, somewhere in his thought process, he had stopped pushing the hay.

Well, Milo didn't say anything about not being able to take a break.

Hop sat down next to the bale and reached into his bag for a water bottle and some granola. He watched Wooloo go get some water from a nearby puddle and called out. "Wooloo, I had a bowl for you, you don't need to drink from-" "Woooooooooo" Wooloo bleet loudly.

Wooloo then returned to the puddle and Hop laughed as he waited to regain his breath.

As he sipped his water he thought of the bloody heavy bale that was next to him. When Hop had gone to Milo in search of a way to show Victor his appreciation, he thought maybe Milo would point him to one of the many flower shops in the city.

Hop was wrong. Instead Milo had gasped, for some reason, and said that the only way to show someone your true feelings was to, “Roll the largest bale of hay you can, to show your strength, and tell them how much they mean to you.” Milo had then blushed and run off into the gym. While Hop was scratching his head at Milo’s odd behavior, Milo had run back out carrying a large bale of hay in one arm and placed it in front of Hop, before running back into the gym.

Hop, had looked at the hay and rolled up his sleeves past his elbows and put his hands into the hay and pushed.

The bale did not move.

He stepped back and took a moment to stretch his arms before trying again. The bale of hay began to move slowly, very slowly.

And thus began the slow, slow, slow walk to the Pokemon Center they were staying at. At some point, Wooloo had released itself from its pokeball and began bleeting in some sort of cheer (scaring Hop and almost causing the hay to roll all the way back to the gym).

Wooloo shoved Hop’s arm, as he was finishing his water break, with its nose and pointed up. Hop looked up and saw Victor looking back at him. Hop jumped up and his hand came to scratch at the back of his head. “Hey Victor, I was-” He was stopped in his words by the most lovely smile he had ever seen on Victor’s face (and he had seen a lot of Victor’s smiles).

“-op are you okay? Have you had enough water? You look very warm.” Victor’s voice tinged with concern got Hop out of his thoughts quicker than any Pokemon's quick attack. Hop smiled wider and said, “Yeah Victor, I’m good, I was just having a water break right now, why’d you come here?” ‘Here when you need to be back at the Pokemon Center so I can roll this ton of hay to you’ Hop thought, as Victor took a moment before speaking.

“Well some people were talking about the ‘Strange challenger pushing a bale of hay, up the road’, and I didn’t know which strange challenger it was so I thought I’d come see. Honestly the way they were talking, I thought it’d be that blonde guy.” Victor stopped and tilted his head in a way that made Hop’s chest tighten in an odd way.

“So why are you pushing a large bale of hay anyway?” Victor tapped the hale bale, and Hop stuck his hands in his pockets, in some attempt to appear casual after being caught with an inordinate amount of hay. He didn’t want to say anything about what Milo had told him because Hop had wanted it to be a sort of surprise. “Well uh… I heard somewhere that if you rolled a bale of hay up a hill, then you would do better in your next battle. And as my favorite rival, I thought you and I could push together, so I wanted to bring it to you." Hop halted his rambling and smiled nervously.

"Of course. That sounds good!" Victor nodded and suddenly began to push his hands against the hay. Hop’s heart stopped as Victor began to push the hay ( a little easier than Hop, but that wasn’t the point). Hop stopped Victor. “Uh- I kinda wanted to roll it up to you first, then… well.” He stopped as Victor frowned and tapped his chin while he thought. “Hmm, as nice as that is, I think that if we share the burden of the weight, than maybe… we can do equally as well at the next gym. Wouldn’t that be wicked!” Victor threw his hands in the air, then pushed his sleeves up to his elbows and put his hands against the hay.

Hop felt a wide smile stretch across his face and said, “Yeah, your right, that would be pretty wicked.” He then reached to join Victor at the hay when he heard a lot of bleeting and looked up.

“Victor watch out!” Hop cried as he turned and grabbed out behind him, connecting with Victor’s hand. He quickly dragged both of them out of the way before a wave of wool and noise came sweeping down the road. After the wave passed (with one straggler behind it), Hop noticed that the bale had disappeared, probably dragged away by the Wooloo.

Hop facepalmed for a few minutes until he heard a full laugh beside him. When he say Victor’s face, Hop could do nothing but join him.

Hop’s Wooloo walked over from the other side of the road and nudged Hop’s arm, joining in on the joy. Hop smiled at the Pokemon then at his friend, “Victor, you mean a lot to me… I mean because you want to help me with the hay thing.” Victor softly smiled, “Come on, we have to go ask Milo for another bale.” Hop nodded then stood up and offered a hand to Victor, who took it and let Hop help him up.

As they walked back to the stadium, Victor asked, “So Milo actually talked to you and told you to roll the hay? How odd. When I tried to talk to him today, he just blushed and ran into the gym.”


	2. Hulbury

**Hulbury (There’s nothing fishy about you!)**

Hop nervously hid- waited in a bush outside of the stadium.

One of Nessa’s trainers had told him to wait outside the stadium, and Nessa would be along shortly, but Hop had been standing awkwardly for about fifteen minutes before Victor actually passed by the stadium, leading Hop to dive behind a barrier outside the stadium.

Not that Hop didn’t want to talk to Victor (he always wanted to talk to Victor), and they were even going to get dinner tonight in celebration for both defeating Nessa earlier that day. The only thing was that Hop had a very important question for Nessa, and he didn’t know quite how to explain it to Victor without it sounding weird.

Hop’s internal rant was cut off by a cough behind him. He turned to see Nessa who’s hair was frankly impressive, but her perfect cat eye wing was moderately intimidating. Hop did not jump, but stood up professionally and even took a moment to brush the leaves out of his hair.

“I would ask why you are hiding behind a stadium, but I don’t think I want to know. So why don’t we move this to a much more comfortable place like inside my gym where we can talk.” Nessa flipped her hair over her shoulder and walked into the front of the gym without a glance behind her. Hop scratched the back of his neck and followed behind her.

She led him to an office decked out with cushy chairs, modeling posters, and a tank in the back with a Feebas swimming around.

Hop waved at it, it did not wave back.

He then sat down across from Nessa who sat back and asked, “One of my trainers said you have a question for me. What is it?” Hop sat for a moment and then jumped into it, “Well, you know my friend Victor, one of the other challengers today, is really cool and he’s my favorite rival. I kinda wanted to show my appreciation for him, but I want it to be special… you know.”

Nessa raised one eyebrow and an odd silence crept it’s way into the room. Nessa sighed and said, “Cute. I’m not really into courtship cultu-” “I’m not talking about court-” “Be quiet. There is a little myth that if you catch a fish and both of you eat it, that the person you eat it with will stay in your life forever. Now I have a photo-shoot in fifteen minutes and I really can't be late, so out you go.” Nessa opened the door of her office and walked out, leaving it open for Hop to leave, which he did fairly quickly.

A fish. Easy.

Except Hop sat on the riverbank at least an hour later with nothing to show. By this point even Sobble had grown bored and was ready to nap. Hop sighed, then sent a message to Victor.

**Hop:**

_Hey Vic! I’m going to have to take a raincheck on our dinner tonight._

He got a message back immediately.

**Vic:**

_Whaaat! Why? Are you okay?_

**Hop:**

_No, yeah, everything's fine. I’m just doing something, and it’s taking longer than I had hoped._

**Vic:**

_Okay. If you need me, just let me know._

Hop’s face grew warm.

**Vic:**

_Hold on, I see you! Stay there!_

Hop panicked and stood up, knocking Sobble onto the ground. Sobble woke up, and a few tears began to form in the corner of its eyes, despite its best efforts. Hop immediately dropped his fishing rod and kneeled next to Sobble to soothe its hurt feelings. As he was patting its head softly, he heard a bike bell ring out a few paces behind him.

Hop frantically looked around before sitting back down on the riverbank and tried to look natural. Sobble went and curled up next to Wooloo who had decided to stay farther away from the river (which Hop had supported fully, it was extremely difficult to get Wooloo’s fur dry).

“Hop! Hi!” Victor came up behind him, and Hop almost leapt into the river. Victor sat down next to Hop, and while he was taking out his fishing gear he said, “Sorry if you wanted to be alone, but I was a little worried, and then I saw you fishing and decided that whatever was going on, I could help by just being here.” Victor looked at the river. “Even if you don’t want to talk, I can be here for you.”

Hop felt guilty, he made Victor feel worried, and he hated when Victor was anything but happy. “I’m really okay. I- I just wanted to… catchafishforyou!” Hop’s cheeks grew warm as he quietly finished his sentence and looked away from Victor.

Victor was quiet for a moment and then giggled, “you could have just told me, I would eat a fish you caught over some restaurant any day!” Hop’s gaze flew to Victor’s and they stared smiling at each other until Victor’s rod began to pull. They both looked at it dumbly, before Victor yelled, “I GOT ONE!” and began to reel it in like a professional.

A Magikarp came flying out at the boys, knocking them over. Hop wheezed as the Magikarp flopped on his chest. Victor pushed it onto the ground, and the boys looked and laughed at the Pokemon.

“Well I guess this is our fish for the day. Do you really think the restaurant will cook it for us?” Victor asked, sitting up and looking down at Hop. Their legs were touching just the slightest bit, so Hop had to regain his breath for two different reasons before replying, “I’m not a hundred percent sure. Nessa made it seem like they did.”

Victor stood up and held out his hand for Hop to take, who did, savoring the feel of Victor’s soft hands. ‘I really want to know how his hands are so soft.’ Hop thought, then shook his head and stood with Victor’s help. They both looked down at the poor floppy Pokemon, before Hop said, “well there’s only one way to find out if someone will cook it for us. Otherwise I guess I could call mum…” He trailed off as he picked up the Magikarp.

Victor nodded, picked up Hop’s things, and woke up Sobble and Wooloo (who had somehow managed to stay asleep during the entire encounter). As they walked towards the restaurant Hop couldn’t help but think, ‘well, I hope this counts.’


	3. Motostoke

**Motostoke (I'm not Hoe-nn around!)**

“It has been a long time since I felt the stirring in my body to court another-” Hop started thinking, ‘don’t think about it, don’t think about it.’ Kabu continued, “but I remember what we used to do in Hoenn to show our appreciation for each other.” Hop hoped Kabu would continue without prompting, but after a moment of both of them staring, he realized he would have to ask the man himself.

“What did you do in Hoenn?” Hop tentatively asked, almost afraid of the answer. “We would go on a brisk walk in one of the many forested areas, and simply spend time together. No weird superstitions or anything like that.” Hop let out a breath of relief. He wouldn’t have to catch another pokemon and fry it up, or any physical labor past walking. It would also be pretty nice, to have a walk, with all the pressure of the gym challenge.

Kabu thought for a moment then spoke again, “although there seems to be a superstition in Motostoke that has something to do with wrestling-” Hop interrupted him, “You know, I think taking a walk would be just excellent even though we aren’t actually courting or anything. Anyway, I have to go, bye.” Hop jumped up, waved and ran out of the room before Kabu could add anything else. 

“Okay, no wrestling, just a simple walk in the woods.” Although, there weren't really any woods near Motostoke, but maybe the wild area would do. After all, they weren’t in Hoenn either, but wrestling wasn’t Hop’s strong suite, maybe if Leon were doing this… but Hop loves walks and Victor hopefully likes them as well.

Victor appeared very excited to go on a walk and even offered to make them some curry for a sort of picnic later. Victor’s curry was legendary, and while he was also known for strange combinations (Hop had been the taste-tester for many new recipes), the curry almost always came out delicious. 

The Pokemon agreed, evidently, as Victor’s Eevee tried to steal everyone else’s food, only avoiding Wooloo, who was known to roll over other Pokemon (out of love) and smush them with it’s fluff.

They got to finish eating and had sat back to enjoy the breeze when clouds began to move in and the sky opened up. They packed up their stuff as quickly as possible, recalling their Pokemon, and trying to find a cave to hide in. 

Which is how Hop and Victor ended up facing down a Gigantamax Palpitoad.

Well Hop guessed this also counted for wrestling something, if that even mattered.

At least if you were allowed to lose the wrestling match.

The Nurse at the Pokemon Center in Motostoke was unimpressed when Victor tried to explain that they hadn’t meant to run into that particular cave. She lifted one eyebrow while healing their Pokemon, “I know you challengers like to ‘prove yourselves’ or something silly like that, but you need to take better care of your Pokemon, and yourselves.” Hop and Victor nodded, Hop patting his arm that had a small scratch. They collected their Pokemon and left the Pokemon Center.

Once they were out of the way of the door, Hop stopped and Victor continued a little further before stopping. His shoulders were shaking and Hop panicked before he heard the little giggles coming from Victor. 

Victor turned around and Hop began to laugh too. Victor snorted and they broke out into full belly laughs. Eventually they sat down on a bench and were wiping their tears while leaning on each other. 

“I can’t believe you actually tried to wrestle the Palpitoad. That was insane, you could have died!” Victor said, grabbing Hop’s shoulder and shaking him a bit. Hop blushed, “yeah well… I didn’t think it would grow right there, you know? Besides that, did you… have fun?” Victor nodded, “I had so much fun, including that! I love spending time with you, and I can’t wait to see what we can do in Stow-on-Side. You know, as rivals.” 

Hop’s heart sank for a second which was ridiculous because that’s all this was supposed to be anyway, so he shook it off and gave Victor a one-armed hug. “Absolutely!”


	4. Stow-on-Side

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will saw that Victor is written as I played him in my first playthrough of shield which was running around calling myself baby. This does mean that while Victor is still silent protag, he is a little more open about how he feels.
> 
> At least, that's my justification for it.
> 
> Also I have to beta... I'm sorry.

* * *

**Stow-on-Side** **(You’ll never be my side-Pidgey), (You’re a knockout/You’re my boo)**

Victor was at a loss. “He hasn’t been here yet?” 

Bea glared at him while Allister shook his head. Victor sighed and pulled out his Rotom phone and checked his past messages to Hop. They were still left on read with no reply. 

“Sorry to bother you guys, I guess. If Hop comes to challenge you can you tell him that Victor was looking for him?” Victor asked. Allister nodded so hard, Victor was afraid the kid’s mask would fall off, and Bea shrugged, “I’m only telling him if he can beat me, but whatever.”

Victor then turned and started the walk back to the Pokemon Center. He was super worried about Hop. Not only had he not responded to any of Victor’s messages, but he was acting strange when they battled the punk weirdos outside of Hammerlocke. By which Hop didn’t seem to want to battle them at all. Usually Hop was excited to prove himself against others, but he hadn’t even had Wooloo out with him. And after the battle with Team Yell, Hop had left before Victor because Victor had to stay overnight at the Pokemon Center to heal them. So Hop should have made it to Stow-on-Side hours before Victor.

‘It must be that Bede creep.” Victor thought, annoyed. He remembered seeing the pink jerk talking to Chairman Rose and his assistant. ‘I bet he was mean to Hop, I should go tell him off.” Not that Victor had ever told anyone off. That was Gloria’s job, and she had been strangely absent ever since they met Marnie at the opening ceremony. She had taken a look at Marnie talking to her fans and Victor had practically seen the hearts in Gloria’s eyes.

‘Well I guess I can call her later.’ Victor nodded and arrived back at the Pokemon center, and took a seat outside of the building. He let his Thwacky and Vaporeon out to walk around the city a bit. He decided to wait outside the center to see if Hop would arrive a little later.

‘Maybe he just needed to take some time to gather his confidence again. I’m sure that he will show up tonight.’

At least there was plenty to do while he was waiting. After a few minutes, Victor decided to get up and explore the town a little. The sun was bright and so were the faces of the shopkeepers and townspeople. Even without knowing that he was taking the gym challenge they spoke to him easily, as if they made their living off of kindness instead of money.

It did make him want to buy things, so maybe they did in a way.

One shopkeeper even paid Victor for the big pearl that he had sitting at the bottom of his bag. Despite the fact that he was worried about Hop, Victor was having a good time relaxing. It felt like he hadn’t been able to relax even for a moment since he had begun the challenge. Which would make sense, but both Victor and his Pokemon had grown tired of the constant battling and training, so he was happy to give them a night to hang out and enjoy the sights.

One of the vendors was selling a mystic water that Victor picked up without thinking about it. At first he thought to give it to Vaporeon, but when he showed it to her she turned her nose up at it and ate some leftovers that Victor had been keeping in his backpack. Since Vaporeon showed no interest in it, Victor then thought to give it to Hop. Hop and Victor had been doing fun things in every town, so Victor thought that it was a good idea to give him something.

Victor blushed. Hop had been setting up really nice things since Turffield, and while he wasn’t sure if Hop _liked_ him, he was sure that Hop wanted to have fun and hang out, co Victor was happy with whatever.

Victor went to sleep that night after texting Gloria goodnight and turning off his phone.

The next morning Victor woke, and after checking his messages (one from his mum about how proud she was, a message from Gloria telling him goodnight) and decided that Hop wouldn’t want him to wait around, but would want Victor to get on with the challenge and meet up with him later.

Victor grabbed his Pokemon and his bag and headed out to the gym. He was so busy fixing his bag that he didn’t notice who was standing in front of the stairs until he had almost run into them.

“Woah! Victor, where are you running off to like that?” Hop was standing in the middle of the way up the steps. Victor startled, “Hop? Where have you been? Do you know how worried I’ve been?” He grabbed Hop’s arms before noticing that he was coming on a little strong and let go, coughing as if that would make Hop forget the question avalanche.

Hop smiled and laughed, embarrassed. “I sent you a text last night, but I know you don’t leave your phone on when you sleep, so you may not have gotten it. Anyway…”

Victor patted his pockets, realizing that his phone had been thrown at the bottom of his bag, so he couldn’t check. Apparently, Hop didn’t mind though because he immediately decided to throw down right in front of the stairs. Victor always enjoyed a good battle, but was worried that Hop didn’t want to talk about what was going on. He ignored it for that moment and tried to enjoy the battle as much as he could.

Victor noticed that Hop called out encouragement like he usually did but was less into it. The battle went by in a flash, neither of them giving their best performance, but in the end Victor came out on top. He went over to Hop, but Hop shook his head and evaded Victor with some words about how he wasn’t going to let Leon’s reputation fall or something.

“But what about how you feel?” Victor thought grumpily although he glared at Opal when the old gym leader said something similar. What did she know anyway?

Victor walked back to the Pokemon Center disheartened, and healed his Pokemon. He went and dug around in his (terrifyingly large) bag, he found his phone and turned it on.

He left it powering up and reaching in his bag again for the mystic water that he had bought yesterday and planned on giving to Hop. ‘Oh well, maybe I’ll just give it to him later.’

Victor then collected his Pokemon, put his phone and the mystic water in his pocket without checking his texts, and went to face the Stow-on-Side gym challenge.

Anything to take his mind off the weirdness going on.


	5. Ballonlea

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey so, one more chapter from Victor's POV (I promise we will get back to our regularly schedule soon.) I gave him another chapter because Hop didn't show up in Ballonlea, so there really wouldn't have been anything for him to do. Also Opal is not my favorite person, and Victor agrees.

**Ballonlea (I’ll never fly away from you.)**

Victor had many feelings about Ballonlea. Mostly he was just trying to get in and out as fast as he could. Toxtricity had been putting in the most work by jabbing every Pokemon Opal’s trainers had been sending at them. The questions were annoying though. Victor had taken a cursory glance at Opal’s trainer card, but that didn’t really help knowing what the gym trainer’s favorite breakfast food was. Honestly this gym challenge was more of a Opal knitting club.

Victor was terrible at guessing, but they still won due to sheer power and Toxtricity’s annoyance with the battles as well. Opal was unimpressed, and made it very clear that Victor would not be in the running for taking over her gym. ‘Thank Arceus. I have never looked good in pink.’ 

Despite her disappointment in Opal trivia, Opal still asked him to walk her back to Hammerlocke. Although Victor wasn’t a huge fan of her, he would not say no to someone who wanted some company. He was so used to Hop hopping in here and there that the last two routes had been lonely, so he said yes. 

The walk was surprisingly nice, they didn’t run into a ton of wild Pokemon, so it was more of a leisurely stroll. Opal didn’t want to talk much, which was both comforting and awkward. Victor would have no idea what to talk about with her, but he was used to Hop’s small noises and chatter whenever they travelled together. Even when he travelled with Gloria, she always had something she wanted to talk about. Or complain about, but same difference.

Speaking of Gloria, somewhere in between Glimwood and Stow-on-Side Gloria had begun to spam text him.

**Gloria:**

_ Bro! _

_ Bro? _

_ Hey, bro, Marnie and I are going to be in Hammerlocke for a few mo’s before heading to Ballonlea, you up for something at the cafe? _

**Victor:**

_ Totally, just a notice that Opal is walking back with me, so you probably shouldn’t rush to the next gym. _

**Gloria:**

_ Oh lit! Cool, then, you can help Marnie with all the secrets of the gym challenge! _

**Victor:**

_ I thought she already beat Opal? Aren’t you the one who needs to beat her? _

**Gloria:**

_ I’ve got this gym in the baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaag this time. Opal won’t know what hit her. Marnie is just giving me some pointers. _

**Victor:**

_ Is that what you’re calling your dates now? ‘Giving me pointers’ _

**Gloria:**

_ Shut up or I’ll drink your milkshake _

**Victor:**

_ Meeeean. See you in a bit. _

Victor smiled at his phone as they walked past the first Pokemon center in Hammerlocke. Victor asked Opal if she would be okay from there and quickly made his way to the cafe. After a quick battle, he sat down at the table where Marnie and Gloria were sharing a Slurpuff-shaped sweet.

"Gross." Victor joked as he sat down across the table from Marnie and Gloria. The girls startled and Gloria's face grew bright red. "Victor! You didn't tell me you were here." 

Victor rolled his eyes, “You knew I was on my way, anyway, I don’t want to stay too long. I heard that it can be pretty rough trying to reach Circhester in the dark. So here is the trick to Opal’s gym.”

Gloria paid close attention to what Victor said. After the explanation and his milkshake, Gloria decided to walk Victor to the next route on the other side of Hammerlocke because she wanted some ‘sibs-time.’ Mostly it was just an excuse to talk.

“So Vic, what’s going on with you and Hop? You guys were hanging out all the time up until Stow.” Gloria put a hand on her brother’s shoulder. Victor sighed, “Who knows Gloria. He lost a battle with that pink guy, Bede, and he must have said some crap stuff you know.” Gloria nodded, “He does seem like that kind of prick to emotionally manipulate his opponents instead of letting his pokemon do the talking… wait isn’t that Bede?” 

They arrived at the middle of the town just in time for Bede to notice them walking up and to turn and sneer at them. Victor’s patience was at its end with this fuzzy pink boy, but he didn’t have time to let Gloria knock him out. Opal interfered and dragged Bede off before anything could go down. Gloria and Victor stood confused for a few moments.

“Well, sounds like it couldn’t have happened to a better person.” Gloria remarked grabbing Victor’s arm, who was still in a little bit of shock at what had suddenly happened. Then to add to the chaos in Victor’s mind, a loud explosion tears through the sky on the way to the train station.

“Oh, Arceus! What is it now?” Gloria growls and Victor shakes himself back into reality. He spotted Sonia standing in the middle of the street and took control of the dragging to bring Gloria over to her. Sonia noticed them and said, “You guys heard that too right? Leon and I will take care of it, so you just continue completing the gym challenge, okay?” 

Gloria and Victor nodded, and Sonia walked away to the center of town. Gloria then startled, “Oh! I should make sure Marnie’s okay, love you bro, see you later!” She then took off leaving Victor overwhelmed and alone.

Of course, Hop decides to show up  _ then _ .

“Hey Vic,... are you okay?” Victor looked up at Hop who appeared to come from the train station. Victor shook his head, and Hop’s smile faded, “Hey, it’s okay, let’s sit down alright?” Hop reached and held Victor’s arm and brought him to the bridge between Hammerlocke and the next route, ignoring all of Victor’s attempts to stop him, then sat down with him on the bridge.

Victor smiled, embarrassed, “I wasn’t freaking out, there was just a lot of stuff happening suddenly. I am glad to see you though.” He tentatively finished and Hop’s face flushed. Hop turned to look out onto the beginning of the route and sighed.

“I have been acting kind of weird, haven’t I?” Victor nodded and looked down, noticing that he and Hop hadn’t stopped holding hands, and replied, “I know that Bede must have said some mean crap to you, but I wish you had talked to me about it. Even if you had just wanted to say that you needed time.” Victor continued without looking up and took the mystic water he had bought at Stow-on-Side. “I wanted to give you this because you were going out of your way to spend time and I wanted to thank you for it.”

Victor looked up to see Hop smiling at him shyly and used his other hand to gently hold the mystic water, “I love it, and I know that I can talk to you, but I just needed to think about what… about some stuff. I still need some time.” Hop then jumped up, fire in his eyes, “But I promise I won’t leave you hanging like that again! Now are you ready for a super awesome rival battle?” 

Victor jumped up and his heart lifted, “Of course I am!”

Everything was going to be fine, Victor could feel it.


	6. Circhester

**Circhester (I’ll never be cold with you beside me!)**

Hop was in subtle crisis mode. Or not so subtle… the point is he was panicking a little bit. Victor gave him such a nice gift, and Hop had nothing to give back to him. He had spent the entire journey through route seven and eight thinking about the mystic water that hung around Inteleon’s neck. The tall Pokemon had thankfully reacted well to the new accessory, and route eight had been the perfect place to try out their new power.

But other than systematically making all route eight Pokemon afraid of Inteleons, Hop also had a lot of time to think about what the mystic water meant. 

Victor had said that he wanted to give it to Hop as a thank you gift. Just thinking about it made Hop blush intensely. Hop had been intending his gestures as a way to foster a healthy rivalry, but could they really have been something else this entire time?

‘Nah’ Hop thought, as Inteleon blasted a Solrock into next week. ‘Victor just wants me to do my best, even though I'm not as good as him.’ Hop’s expression grew dark, and Inteleon (having finished the battle) walked back to him, tilting their head. Hop shakes off the dark mood, he has made it just as far as Victor, Marnie, and Gloria. No matter what anyone else says, he isn’t weak.

Hop decides against training more and calls Inteleon back to their pokeball. The rest of the way to Circhester is mostly uneventful, except for that Crustle, ugh, there’s a reason Hop doesn’t have any bug types on his team. Unfortunately, that’s when the world turns into a winter wonderland, and Hop has to keep himself warm in only the light jacket he had on. 

‘Should have picked Scorbunny’ he thinks to himself before regretting it. Inteleon is an amazing Pokemon and has stuck with Hop through some tough times. He could never replace them.

He proceeded to then slip on some bridge ice and fall flat on his back. He lay there and stared at the gray sky for a moment, before the sky was filled with a familiar face.

“Hop? Are you okay? I saw you fall and you didn’t get up.” Victor sounded concerned and stepped around Hop and held out a hand for Hop to take. Which he did, and got a shiver up his arm. It was probably just the cold.

“I’m good, mate. Thanks for the help though.” Hop let go and brushed himself off, the back of his jacket now damp and uncomfortable. Victor smiled (that smile) and said, “That’s what I’m here for, it wouldn’t do for my … rival to be knocked out from falling down.” Victor’s eyes became worried “Is that your only jacket?” 

Oh yeah, Hop blushed, scratching the back of his neck. The jacket thing. He had already noticed how many layers Victor was wearing and it suddenly felt colder than it already was. Victor was now giving Hop the “mom look” and Hop was trying to explain the reason why he had no money to buy a new jacket. There wasn’t any real reason, in fact he had the money, but just didn’t think about it.

Victor, unimpressed, took off his big fluffy top layer and practically forced Hop into it. “You need to take better care of yourself. Forget falling, you could get sick and lose a battle because you sneezed instead of telling your Pokemon to dodge.” Hop resigned himself to his rival stuffing him in a coat (which was a little big on him honestly, when did Victor get wider shoulders than Hop?) 

Victor then took one look at Hop and giggled (and Hop knew he would do almost anything for that giggle) “Come on, let’s get to Circhester and we can stay at the hotel. Maybe we can even have a battle.” Hop thought about it, battling was a huge part of who he had wanted to be, and even after Bede he still loved to do it, but… “I think a battle can wait until after we beat the gym challenge, I maybe, want to- I don’t know, relax right now.” 

Hop looked up at Victor as he finished speaking and Victor’s soft smile showed through the wind and snow. “I would love to relax with you Hop.”

Hop then realized that they were standing quite close to each other and took a step back, “Well then let’s go, we want to get a room with a view right?” Then he took off running, his heart already pounding for some reason. He heard Victor laugh and come running after him and promised that he would get his rival something truly amazing next town.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah, sorry that this is so late, I had surgery at the beginning of the month and I had to spend some time recovering. 
> 
> I will admit that Circhester also didn't really speak to me. It mostly felt like a pit stop before Spikemuth, which I am so ready to start writing.


	7. Spikemuth

**Spikemuth (You Rock and Roll!)**

This wasn’t Hop’s first or even second time in Spikemuth. He had forced Leon to take him there multiple times once Leon had become champion (usually in return for not telling their mother something), but it was very obviously Victor’s first time in the grungy town, and he was loving it.

“Hop! You gotta take a picture of Piers and me on stage after we both- sorry Marnie, after we  _ all _ battle him!” Victor smiled and then gave a quick look around the city. “This place is so cool! Marnie, do you know everyone here?” Victor was asking Marnie as many questions as he could on their way to the end of the gym challenge. They battled a few of the trainers, which unsurprisingly (to Hop and Marnie at least) were members of Team Yell. Victor of course was blown away by everything though, as far as Hop knew, he had never even been farther than Wedgehurst before he got his starter. 

Gloria was also freaking out over how “wicked” everything was too, but she had to stay back at the Pokemon center (she hadn’t defeated Gordie yet). Hop felt bad, but he was thankful. At least without Gloria egging Victor on, Hop could keep Victor’s attention on him sometimes. Hop’s nose scrunched up, not that he needed Victor’s attention on him all the time, it was just- nevermind.

Victor beat another set of Gym trainers and asked for a pic with both of them. Marnie smirked and moved to take the camera when Victor said, “Hop, you have to be in this picture, I don’t have any with you, in Spikemuth anyway!” Victor moved over, leaving Hop a space between him and one of the trainers. Hop uncomfortably posed for a picture, trying to smile, then turned to Victor, “We should probably head on into the gym to fight Piers. If he starts another set, we’ll never get to battle him.” Hop saw Marnie’s smirk deepen and she raised an eyebrow at him, “Yeah Victor, the sooner we get to Piers the quicker you can get a picture with him too.” 

Hop had never felt so betrayed before, and he didn’t even know why.

“You’re right Marnie!” Victor said and thanked the gym trainers. He then grabbed Hop’s hand and started pulling him closer to the gym. “Come on Hop, I can’t wait to battle Piers and to see you battle him too!” Hop felt a sense of doom rising in his chest for some reason as they got closer to the thumping bass and the voice reaching past the music. Hop remembered when he loved to see Piers play, and, honestly, he had been crazy excited to get to Pier’s gym at the beginning of the challenge, but now seeing Victor so starstruck with the place, Hop was feeling a lot weird about it.

Maybe it’s just a bad day or something.

They walked into the stadium, and there was Piers looking good on stage as usual. His presence on stage would always be way more powerful than his battle presence (not that it wasn’t strong too, but he always looked… more on stage). Leon and their mum thought that Hop had a crush when he was younger (he didn’t!!!!), but all he really wanted to do was watch how Piers seemed to change personalities when he got on stage. When he was talking to Leon and Raihan, he tended to mumble and blush, but once he got on stage, there was nothing that could break his concentration. 

When Hop looked over at Victor, the dread that had been building up settled a little because Victor was looking at Hop, not at Piers! 

“I remember when I moved in and you kept telling me about the concerts you went to, and all I wanted was to go with you to one.” They both paused for a moment before blushing and Victor let go of Hop’s hand. Hop couldn’t hear anything except the little voice in his head that was cheering at what Victor said, so he was shocked when Victor began walking towards Piers, who had hopped off the stage (A stage that was being quickly pushed to the back of the stadium. Pier’s trainers must be used to this by now). Hop panicked and all he could do when Victor turned around was give him two thumbs up.

Marnie slid up next to him, “I can’t tell if you are too subtle or not subtle enough.” “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Hop said, the blush that had been dying down, doubled and he avoided Marnie’s gaze as she snickered. 

Hop looked to the battle. Victor was crushing Piers, but they both looked like they were having fun, and Hop just let himself look at Victor’s battle face. There was nothing better than watching Victor battle, except, of course, battling Victor himself. Victor’s eyes glowed with a fire that was breath-taking. “Hey, are you going to actually watch the battle? It’s almost over- also you should stop before you start drooling.” Marnie’s voice shook Hop out of his thoughts, before he thought about it, he wiped a hand across his mouth (there wasn’t anything there). Marnie started giggling, and Hop glared at her.

“Oh come oooooooon Hop.” She started to lean on him, and he pushed her away lightly, “back off, it’s not your business.” Hop grumbled and turned back to the battle, he noted that Piers was already on Obstagoon, and decided that he had missed too much of the battle silently. 

“YOU GOT THIS, VICTOR!” Hop yelled, and two things happened in quick succession: Piers smirked and raised an eyebrow, and Victor flushed and stuttered out the battle ending move. The stadium was quiet until Piers called back Obstagoon, and all the trainers (and Marnie) started stomping their feet and cheering. Hop quickly jumped in and started cheering. He felt the excitement build for his own battle later today and for the fact that his best rival had just beaten the seventh gym leader. 

He started walking up before noticing that Piers and Victor were still talking and Hop stopped for a moment before seeing Victor pulling his phone out of his pocket and Piers pulling Victor in for a picture. Victor looked so excited, that Hop couldn’t interrupt.

When the picture was taken, Hop saw Piers whisper something in Victor’s ear, and Victor shyly looked away, ‘that’s it’, Hop thought and joined them. 

“Hey, congrats Victor! One more to go!” Hop cheerfully called, and walked right up to Victor. Victor smiled at Hop, “I’m so excited! And it will be the same for you soon-” Victor stopped, looking torn between trying to be excited for Hop and not hurting Pier’s feelings. “I mean… no offense.” Piers snorted and ruffled Victor’s hair, “None taken, I’m pretty riled up to battle Hop too.” He gave Hop a look. “It’s been a while kid, you don’t come with Leon and Raihan to my concerts anymore.”

There was something in Pier’s eyes, he was pulling something, Hop could just tell. So Hop just laughed and scratched the back of his head, “Yeah, I guess I just have been pretty busy. Besides, I wouldn’t want to cramp your guys’ style, you know? I’m sure you all have fun on your own, right?” They stared at each other for a moment before Piers threw his head back and laughed.

“Alright kid, I get it. I’ll stop.” His smirk softens and he gives a nod to Hop and Victor before gesturing to Marnie and walking over to the collection of Gym trainers just waiting for him. 

Hop sighed and then squeaked when he felt a tug on his sleeve. Victor looked at him with concern. “Hey, Hop, are you okay? You’ve seemed a little weird since we got here. I thought maybe you would be more excited since you’ve been here before.” Well now Hop felt bad.

“I didn’t mean to drag you into the stadium, if you didn’t want to fight him today. We can go if-” Victor’s left hand almost smacked Hop in the face, so he grabbed it and Victor stopped talking.

“I’m sorry Victor. You didn’t do anything, I promise. I guess I just felt,” Jealous? “Weird and I didn’t know how to tell you. I promise I am here and excited to battle, as long as you are there to cheer me on!” Hop watched as Victor smiled and couldn’t help but smile back. “And besides, I heard that the stadium sells t-shirts of Piers, and I want to totally get you one, I heard they look pretty sharp.” 

Victor’s smile grew wider, and Hop felt a squeeze from the hand holding his own.


	8. Hammerlocke

Hammerlocke (There’s nothing we can’t do together)

Once again, Hop was not nearly as excited to be in a city than he thought he would be at the beginning of his challenge. Unfortunately, Raihan was less subtle about he and Hop’s previous knowledge of each other and wasn’t afraid to employ these tactics in front of Hop, the gym trainers, and about 100 million of his closest followers, most of which had shown up to the stadium in-person. So far they had been told about Hop’s favorite childhood cereal, the time he snuck into Leon’s backpack to go to one of Pier’s concerts, and every time he had a crush on an up-and-coming gym leader in and out of Galar. To be honest, the last one was at least a little funny, and practically all of Raihan’s followers agreed with Hop about Wallace (surprising no one).

Hop was starting to get annoyed though, Raihan wasn’t taking the battle seriously and would keep ignoring Hop for his followers. As impulsive as Hop was, though, he wasn’t stupid enough to blow up at Raihan while he had so many people watching the match. Instead he waited until he had won, then confronted him.

“That was a pretty terrible showing. You wouldn’t want your fans to think you were taking it easy on me.” Hop stomped up to Raihan after he had put his phone away. Raihan smirked and put a hand on his shoulder, “I battled like usual, and my fans know that, you were just better, Hop. You and your brother.” Raihan’s smirk fell a little and Hop annoyance fell away. “You know Leon considers you his only real rival right? Not to mention you have some weird thing with him and Piers. You really think Leon thinks less of you?” The hand on Hop’s shoulder squeezed, “Yeah I know, I’m just being weird. Wait what do you mean the ‘weird thing with Leon and Piers?’” Hop put his hands up, “nothing, nothing, it’s just… nevermind.” Raihan raised an eyebrow and started to say something when he got a notification on his phone.

“New challenger. We’re not done talking about this, but I’ll have to catch you later.” He flashed the crowd a peace sign and left the field with Hop trailing behind him. As Hop left the stadium he watched Raihan get mobbed by his fans and Hop quickly ran to the changing room to avoid as much of the crowd as possible. He didn’t know how Leon could stand it. Hop was friendly enough, but some of the fans got really crazy. 

Hop decided to take some time and enjoy the city. He had come often enough with his family (and later when Hop was old enough, he would beg Leon to take him by themselves), but he rarely had gotten to just walk around and look at the sights. There was always something to do in the city, but for now, Hop sat on a bench and relaxed. Now that he had beaten Raihan, there would be a lot of work to do with the finals, but Hop was ready!

After an hour-long nap (on the bench, his mum would lecture him forever if she found out) and some ice cream, Hop noticed that he had sat himself right across the way from the clothing shop. He considered going in and spending some cash (most of it went right back into things like Pokeballs and medicine for his Pokemon), but decided against it. At least, he had until he saw someone very familiar walking towards the shop. 

“Hey Victor!” Hop’s mouth called without his brain’s permission. While everything had been good after Hop and Victor got matching shirts from Pier’s merch shop, Hop was extremely uncomfortable with how he had reacted during their match and the feeling that had risen inside of him. Thankfully, Victor was not having any sort of issues and turned to Hop’s voice immediately. “Hey Hop! You wanna come in with me? I’m looking for a new jacket.” Victor called across the street while moving out of the way for a couple who looked a little annoyed at them for yelling across the street. 

Hop stood up and walked to Victor, “Sure, I have nowhere else to be. I already beat Raihan about an hour ago.” Victor’s bright smile turned to Hop, “That’s awesome! I was gonna change up my style, then take him on. I was practicing with Gengar and Rillaboom the other night, and Gengar kinda ripped my nice jacket. I was hoping that Hammerlocke would have something cute since I needed to be here to fight Raihan anyway.” Hop did have to stop himself from saying that Victor could make anything look cut-nice, and just nodded instead.

Victor grabbed Hop’s hand and they walked into the store together. Victor went towards the jackets in the back, and Hop took this time to glance around the store and see if there was anything that his mum or Leon would like, his mum’s birthday wasn’t for a few months, but it was never too early to buy a present for her. It was then when he noticed a jacket.

It was light pink with little Pokemon on it, though he couldn’t see them from where he stood, so he started walking that way, forgetting that he was still holding Victor’s hand. Hop looked back when he reached resistance and Victor was looking at him confused, “did you see something you wanted, Hop?” “Uh, just a jacket, do you wanna come check it out with me? It will just take a second, and we can come back and keep looking if you don’t like it.” Victor was already shaking his head and returning the coat he had been looking at, “I want to see what got your attention so bad.” 

They walked over to where Hop saw the sleeve and grabbed it off the rack. It was pretty small, and while Hop’s mum was shorter than Leon, the jacket probably wouldn’t be a good fit for her, but when Hop looked at Victor he was smiling at it. Hop could see why Victor might be interested in it: it had small Gengars on it and looked really warm and soft on the inside. “Why don’t you try it on? It looks like it might fit you.” Hop said (once again without permission, was he even in control of his own mouth anymore?”. Victor nodded and slipped it off the hanger and onto himself. 

Honestly, he looked really nice in it. Victor changed styles like Hop’s Wooloo changed which toy was her favorite: often and without warning. Today, though, Victor had kept his natural hair color and was wearing pretty neutral colors (not that Hop was looking too closely), which made the coat look perfect on him. They stood there smiling for a moment before a worker came up to them.

“Can I help you? Are you interested in buying the Lovely Nightmares Parka? It comes in other sizes if this one is too large.” The voice of the worker shook Hop and Victor out of their weird gazing contest, and Victor started stuttering that he really didn’t have enough money, and how he had to stock up on battle things, but he did really like it, and Hop interrupted, “I can buy it. It looks really warm Victor, and this can be an early birthday present or something.” Victor blushed and tried to say something, but Hop had already pulled out some money. The jacket wasn’t all that much, and Hop was happy to pay it because Victor looked really happy wearing it. (There was that strange feeling, not the one he had watching the beetle with Piers, but the one after he saw Victor buy some matching merch with Hop). 

“You have to let me get you something too, that was too much.” Victor said once they had left the store. Hop rolled his eyes and tried not to think about how warm Victor was next to him. “Absolutely not! You bought the stuff from Spikemuth, and honestly, if it makes you accept the gift, then I won’t get you anything for your birthday. I promise.” (A lie). Victor sighed loudly and said, “Fiiiine, I guess so, but you have to promise that we can go out for food tonight, after my battle with Raihan, and you can only pay for your part of the meal, alright?” Hop nodded. “As long as you promise to battle Raihan with everything you have.” 

“Who do you take me for?” Came the expected reply.

Hop smiled and turned to Victor, whose eyes were already blazing at the thought of battle. “Well then let’s see who can get into the stadium first: me going through security or you battling Raihan.” Hop then took off towards the stadium, and he heard Victor yelling behind him.

I’ll take that bet Hop! See you in a few!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Lovely Nightmare parka is an actual item that you can buy in Hammerlocke, and it does look absolutely adorable. 
> 
> Also I'm going to mark this as complete for now, but I may add some chapters later.
> 
> If you have anything in the S&S universe that you want to see, let me know! I don't do smut, but I am always willing to try a new pairing or a usual pairing with a new concept!

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
